In our nearly ten-year history on Trinity Place, this was the very first time we had ever enrolled a new kid and signed on his mom to volunteer at the same time.Crystal and her son had just moved to Columbia from Cairo, MO, and were not all that excited about living in public housing. All that changed, however, when she learned about Granny’s House from another neighborhood mom.
“Honestly, this is the best place I’ve ever encountered... everybody makes us feel so homey... like
nobody is better than anyone else; like everybody is equal. When I walk in, I always feel loved,”
Crystal comments.
Crystal jumped in with both feet! Within days of enrolling her son, she went through the required Granny’s House Volunteer Orientation and stared her volunteer duties as a kitchen assistant everyday. She was thrilled to serve the kids who come to Granny’s House, but admitted that she just likes being in the atmosphere. She is our very first Granny’s House Mom-Volunteer!
Crystal, typically, begins her afternoons by visiting with the staff in the upstairs office and perks up whenever the conversation turns to the God/Church/Bible… She sits there taking it all in with wide-eyed wonder…
“Ohhhhhhh. I’d love to go to church,” she said one day; “But I don’t have a car...can I go?”
“Sure,” I responded. “We’ll pick you up when we come to get your friend and her kids, o.k.? I’ll be there around 10:15 Sunday morning.”
After her first time attending church in years, she confessed to crying through the entire service. “I had been to churches before, maybe ten years ago, but when I walked into The Crossing, for the first time in my life I didn’t want to leave,” she said. “I wanted him (Pastor Keith Simon) to keep going and going and going. I’ve only missed one service since that first time and I don’t plan on missing any more!”
(Crystal’s story will continue in “People Stories, Part 3 – John”)
